Table Saw Cake

We had a family reunion over the weekend and my husbands uncles birthday happened to be on the same weekend as the reunion. He has had his thunder stolen a couple times so my awesome in-laws thought a cake for him would be a fun way to make it up to him. They asked me to make him a birthday cake that would be able to feed everyone at the reunion. He is a shop teacher and very handy with wood working so we went with a Tool theme.

What you'll need:
Cake
Frosting (black, yellow and grey)
Silver Sprinkles
Chocolate
Wood Graining Tool
Saw Blade
Graham Crackers
Sugar Sheet (or fondant)
Food Markers

BUILDING:

Baking Trick

First I want to share a cool trick I learned from an awesome baker friend! I borrowed this half sheet pan and had never baked a cake that massive in size (look it barely fit in my oven). When she brought her pan over she also brought some rose nails and said to put them flat side down in the pan when I bake it. It makes it bake evenly and keeps it from doming quite as bad. It totally worked! Oh and if you've never baked a half sheet cake before let me warn you it takes A LOT of batter! This was 4 batches of the recipe I used to get it half full!

Now for the actual building. This is super simple because there isn't a lot of shaping. It is all square or rectangle shapes so I just baked in pans that were the sizes I needed. Use a rectangle (whatever size you'd like) for the base (the table). Then bake another cake in a loaf pan (this will be your plank of wood). Then bake either a second smaller loaf pan (for the tape measure) or cut off the end of the first loaf pan (if your plank doesn't need to be as long as the loaf) and use the end for the tape measure.
Side note: I used marble cake for everything so that it would have kind of a grain inside when it was cut.

FROSTING:

Frosting

The table part of the table saw is the big rectangle cake. I frosted the whole thing in grey buttercream frosting then added some silver sprinkles to give it more of a chrome look. The wood was frosted in peanut butter frosting (one of my faves! So delish!) because it was kind of tan wood color. The tape measure was frosted just using a star tip and I pulled out my husbands tape measure to copy the color and pattern. Pretty simple since most of it is just spreading rather than piping with a tip.

DETAILS:

Wood Grain Detail

Saw Blade and Tape Measure added

I LOVE this new trick I learned and want to make another cake using it so bad! I got a wood graining tool at Home Depot for like $3.00. Then melted chocolate and used the tool to spread the chocolate on wax paper. Put it in the freezer but only for about 3-5 minutes (other wise it curls and breaks more easily). Then you lay the chocolate on the frosting and peel off the wax paper! This made the cake so much cuter! Plus who doesn't love chocolate?? (besides me haha). You can see the seams on the edges so I'm dying to try again and work on doing that better.
Then I put the saw blade in (it's real...after figuring out the wood grain my creative juices were all dried up...) and added the crushed up graham cracker crumbs for the saw dust effect.
Lastly I put the tape measure on. I used a sugar sheet for the measuring part and wrote the numbers on with a food marker. I also added the Dewalt logo to the blade and the tape measure by also writing on a sugar sheet (Doesn't look anything like the real logo...but you get the idea).
It was a hit!

Finished Table Saw Cake

Cowboy Hat Cake

I forgot to take pictures of the process of this one but it's pretty simple.

All you need is:
Cake
Twinkies
Frosting
Sheriff Badge

BUILDING:

Top view

I baked a round cake and then a cake in a bowl. The round cake I shaped into an oval then used my scraps to build up the edges for a brim. The cake baked in a bowl was placed flat side down on top of the oval. Then I cut the top of two Twinkies off and put them on top of the bowl cake.

FROSTING:

Front View

I didn't use a tip for this cake. I just frosted it with a chocolate cream cheese frosting. It made it much easier to hide seams where I built and it also gave it more of worn look like a real cowboy hat would have :)

FINISHING DETAILS:
To finish I put a Sheriff badge on the front of it and then cut the cake board so you couldn't see it and placed it on a handkerchief with the plates and napkins. It was so fast and easy and my 6 year old Loved it!

Finished Cowboy Hat Cake

Elmo Cake/Cupcakes

I was also asked to make my niece her very own cake to eat for her first birthday and Elmo is her favorite so I made an Elmo cake for her and then some Elmo cupcakes to go along with the Cookie Monster cupcakes. I am not a fan of characters because they always look silly or off if they aren't EXACTLY perfect but since it was for my nieces first birthday I decided to give it a try.

All you need is:
Cake/Cupcakes
Frosting
Marshmallows
Oreo's

This was my first Marble cake and I was surprised at how easy it was to do! If any of you need an awesome marble cake recipe let me know and I'll gladly give you the one I used.

making marble cake

marbled cake batter

Shaping Elmo's head

For the Elmo cake I just baked a round cake. Then I cut the top two corners (if a circle had corners lol) out and shaped what was left at the top into the eyes.

FROSTING:
To frost Elmo I used my Wilton's Grass tip to give it more of a long fur or hairy look rather than a short fuzzy look (like a teddy bear or cookie monster). His eyes I frosted white with a spatula and then added the black round pupils.

Furry Elmo

FINISHING DETAILS:
His mouth is just frosted black and his nose is a peach flavored marshmallow I found that just happened to be about the right size. It turned out not too bad considering it was made from scratch without a mold.

Finished Elmo cake.

The Elmo cupcakes were pretty similar to the cake. They are frosted with the same tip as the cake and the eyes and nose are marshmallows (just smaller) but the mouth is an Oreo cut in half rather than frosted.

Frosted with Oreo mouth on

I wasn't very impressed with my Elmo Cupcakes but the Elmo cake and Cookie Monster cupcakes were cute enough that it didn't matter :)

All the finished Cupcakes and Cake

Cookie Monster Cupcakes

I'm sure a lot of you have seen these cute little cupcakes floating around on the internet. My SIL asked me to make the cake for the guests at my nieces first birthday. She said she wanted Sesame Street themed so I was so excited to have an excuse to try these out!

All you need is:
Cupcakes
Frosting
Cookies
Marshmallows

BUILDING:

Mouth Slit

Very first thing I did was pull the wrappers off and cut a slit for a mouth on the side. Then I broke the cookies in half and put the cookies in the mouth slit.

Cookie in mouth

FROSTING:
Then I just star tipped the top of the cupcake in blue frosting. Super easy!!

Cupcake all startipped

FINISHING DETAILS:
To finish up I just used marshmallows for the white's of his eyes. I then frosted the blacks of his eyes (one towards the top of the marshmallow and one towards the bottom) with black frosting. All done! It only took about 15 minutes to do all the cookie monster cupcakes! Loved these!

Finished Cookie Monster Cupcake

Halloween Cupcakes!

Aren't these Halloween cupcakes so cute! I made cupcakes and frosting for my boys to decorate just for fun and decided to make some myself and give them to my nieces. All you need for the three types of cupcakes shown here is:

Cupcakes
Frosting
Waffle cones
Pull apart licorice
Black licorice

Pumpkin Cupcake

The pumpkin was the very easiest to do. Just frost it orange and frost a green stem then decorate the face with candies, frosting or whatever you'd like. I piped the mouth on and used Toblerone (I cut it smaller) for the eyes. This one is so easy that my 7 year olds were even able to do it.

Spider Cupcake

The spider cupcake was also pretty easy. I started by frosting the whole cupcake white. The I used a star tip for the body and head of the spider. The hardest part for me on this was the actual spider body because I'm not a very good artist but all in all it turned out okay. Black licorice was used for the legs and then I also added some red pull apart licorice for eyes.

Witch hat and hair cupcake

side view of witch hat and hair

The witch ones were my favorite! First frost the cupcake green (with the left over pumpkin stem frosting). Then cut a waffle cone down to the size hat you'd like. Frost the hat in black (with left over spider frosting). Because these were for my nieces I added sprinkles to make it more girly and cute (also I just like adding sparkly sprinkles to things whenever possible). Then put the cone in the center of the cupcake. Once the cone is in place I put the licorice around about half the cupcake. Once you have as much "hair" as you want on there pipe on some black frosting all the way around the cone for the brim of the hat. This way the "hair" is under the hat. And voila! A fun witches hat with hair!

Spagetti and Meatball Cupcakes

While on this food themed cupcake kick I made some seriously delicious Spagetti and Meatball Cupcakes! Here is what you'll need:

Cupcakes (whatever your favorite recipe..mine is a delicious made from scratch yellow)
Frosting ( I used my favorite cream cheese recipe)
Ferrero Rocher Chocolates
1 pint halved strawberries
Sugar
Lemon Juice
Water
Cornstarch

1st boiling

2nd boil

RED SAUCE:
I would recommend making the red sauce while the cupcakes bake so that they can both cool at the same time and then when you start frosting and decorating everything will be ready. Here is the sauce recipe:
Boil on medium heat: 1/3 C Sugar, 1 pint halved strawberries, 1tsp. Lemon Juice and 2 TBS. Water. Simmer until somewhat thickened. Cool then puree. Return to saucepan. In bowl combine 1 TBS Cornstartch and 1 TBS Water. Slowly combine Cornstarch mixture with puree. Cook 1-2 minutes or until thick. Cool Completely before using.

While everything was cooling I mixed my frosting and let it sit in the fridge for a while also. I used a cream cheese frosting which is pretty difficult to decorate with since it's so creamy and not very stiff. I knew it would be so tasty with the sauce though and it's the perfect noodle color so I went ahead and tried it. I am so glad I did because it is SO YUMMY!!

Cupcakes cooled and in Disposable dish

BUILDING:
There isn't any building but I did put the cupcakes into a disposable lasagna dish. This was great not only for effect but it kept any sauce that dripped down to the bottom from running off like it could have on a cake board.

Making Noodles

DECORATING:
Okay now that the cupcakes are baked and cooled, the frosting is made and chilled and the sauce is cooked and cooled, the longest and hardest part is over! Now comes the fun and easy part...DECORATING!

The only frosting for this is the noodles and I didn't use any dyes. All I did was use the #233 (grass) tip. Once all the cupcakes were covered well I went back and put some between each of the cupcakes.

Meatballs on top of Noodles

FINISHING:
To finish I put a Ferrero Rocher chocolate on each cupcake. They have the perfect meatball looking texture! Lastly I put the sauce over the spagetti and meatballs. The sauce is so super tasty and combined with the cream cheese frosting is one of my new favorite recipes! I am going to have to find more ways to combine the two! These are YUMMY!

Finished Spagetti and Meatball Cupcakes

Hamburger Cupcakes

These cute little guys are perfect for a BBQ, picnic or any time you are missing summer. All you need is this:

Chocolate cake
Vanilla cake (lemon or white would work also)
Cupcake pans
Frosting
Sesame Seeds

Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes

Building

BUILDING:
Simply cut the white cupcakes in half. This is now your bun. Cut the chocolate cupcakes in half or even thirds (however thick you want your patty) and this is now your meat patty.

cheese/mustard

Ketchup

Lettuce

DETAILS:
Once you have your burgers built just add the condiments. Be sure to put some kind of topping between the bottom bun and meat AND the top bun and meat so that the whole thing stays stuck together. Here is the order I did it in. Yellow cake, Mustard/Cheese (yellow frosting[tip #103 ]), Chocolate Cake, Ketchup (Red Frosting [tip # 7]), Lettuce (Green Frosting [tip #61]) and Yellow Cake.

Hamburger Cupcakes

FINISHING:
The finishing touch is a few Sesame Seeds and voila! A Hamburger cupcake just in time for our 4th of July celebration tomorrow!